The decorated dorm room

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT)

Published
8:00 pm EDT, Sunday, August 17, 2008

Necessities for setting up my first home away from home were a suitcase of clothes, a Sony cassette Walkman, an electric typewriter, and a turntable, speakers and a milk crate jammed full of my favorite LPs.

The living arrangements were three girls to a small room, with a set of bunk beds and a single bed crammed in. On entering, we were struck by the smell of the newly installed commercial floor covering and the fact that there were only two closets for three people.

Covering the concrete walls with music and movie posters was the first order of business, to take away the feeling of just having been incarcerated.

Today, the list of must-haves for college living is vastly longer -- futon couches, refrigerators, cappuccino and panini makers, laptops, flat-screen TVs and Playstations, DVD and MP3 players, and lots of surge protectors and extension cords.

According to the National Retail Federation, students and parents spent $4.7 billion on dorm and back-to-college merchandise in 2007. Tracy Mullin, NRF president, said, "By recognizing a historically neglected market, retailers have found themselves in the middle of a gold mine."

A myriad of other sites tackle the decorating problems of on-campus living. At www.DormDelicious, for instance, you can take a "Dorm Room Color Scheme Quiz" to determine what tones best fit your personality.

This Web site is particularly helpful because it provides advice, decorating ideas and organization tips supplied by other students.

You'll also find such articles as "What to Bring," "What Not to Bring," "How to Construct A Loft Bed" and "Whatever You Do, Don't Forget the Can Opener."

You can get design and space-management ideas from pages of dorm room photos posted by those who have already been there, done that.

A 2001 Back-to-School survey conducted by IKEA, tapped 600 students nationwide to uncover how the "college experience is affected by what they decide to bring" with them when they move from home to school.

� A white blanket -- Fifty-seven percent of students who took a white blanket to college reported having a grade-point average of 3.6 or higher.

� Stuffed animals X-- Students who said they couldn't leave home without their stuffed animals, no matter what their condition, were the most likely to make the dean's list at least once during their years in college.

� A sofa -- Students without sofas in their rooms were 75 percent more likely to say that they call home every day compared to students with sofas.

Girls with a sofa in their room were more likely to study every day compared to those who didn't have a sofa. However, guys with a sofa in their room were three times as likely to say they never study compared to girls with sofas.

Who can guess the significance of that information?

Leaving for college is a major lifestyle transition fraught with excitement, anticipation and worry. Decorating savvy is not a prerequisite. Don't forget a can opener and white blanket and everything will be fine!